Many, many years ago I exchanged a few conversations with a professor in mathematics/ statistics over a Go-chess game; refer to end text or Google to learn about the game. And of course the reason why I am sharing the narrated version of the conversation is because of its relevance to the topic of this post.

It was summer, and perhaps it was because of the nature of the game which requires a tremendous amount of strategic skills like Sun Tze’s Art of War, it didn’t stop us from having a chit-chat about which country in Europe had the highest suicidal rate.

And you might have guessed it right. Countries in Europe that topped the list for suicide also receive the least amount of sunlight/ daylight per year. I don’t think it is important to spell them out here, a short Wikipedia search will present you the list.

A fact that might surprise most of you is .. the season that indicates the highest suicidal rate may not be – Winter. If the statistics is done right, suicidal rate reaches its peak when the cold ends and warmth sets in. When the flowers begin to bloom, and people who are clinically depressed experience changes in their environment from a dull to a joyful setting but within themselves they don’t feel quite right. Winter which is cold, quiet and depressing, and it seems okay to feel that way since everyone seems to whine about a similar experience. But when Spring arrives and everything changes, and emotionally they don’t feel an equivalent change, they break.

Art can be a very helpful psychological aid. If there is always sufficient lights through the dark and quiet season, something new and creative that lights up the dark, it brings some hope, and maybe joy too. Light installations have been considered a popular art expression in Europe, and mainly because artists and sponsors residing there recognize the usefulness of lights, in Winter and early Spring. If a study on this art-science contribution to a lowering of suicidal rate has already been done, do email us or leave a comment at the end of this post with its relevant citation.

Here are some recent and popular ways of using lights to brighten up an environment, to create marketing opportunities, charity events, education, fun and religious purposes. Some of these creations were previously mentioned and they are shortlisted in here as they have made a significant difference to what I have once considered as Lights.

Saint Laurent 2014 Runway

 

teamLab チームラボ, Tokyo
Picture shows a creation curated by teamLab (Tokyo, Japan) and ArtScience Museum (Singapore). teamLab is lead by a group of elite computer programmers and has created numerous interactive space for visitors to the art exhibition. The interaction is between body movements and lights; using algorithms, the system predicts the distance of space-to-sense of touch. The designed butterflies, flower petals and lights then appear/ disappear according to a frequency.

The exhibitions are very futuristic and if you are gamer of Final Fantasy or have watched the movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the curated themes offer the one-in-a-million ticket ride chance to be a character in the video game.

 

Jun Ong
Jun is trained as an architect in London, United Kingdom. The Star is one of his early projects upon his return to Malaysia, and it was a very successful project.  The predominant reason that this work was a success because The Star achieved and met two targets using one installation, a massive one indeed: 1) marketing of a commercial site of a new development; 2) tourism – the installation attracted waves of visitors who were visiting Penang or made a short detour to drop by Georgetown. And of course, when will you ever get a chance to see such a huge star on planet Earth ?

Picture: The Star spans over a five-storey commercial site.

 

Valentine’s Day in Hong Kong (2016), Charity event, fund raising. These cute little DDP LED lights in the name and shape of a rose first originated from Seoul, Korea. Shortly after its stay in HK, these (bed of) roses were transported to Serdang, Malaysia for an exhibition during the third quarter of 2016. All editorial boards (not limited to NaoRococo The Waterhouse; I hope you get the whole gist of our rather inconvenient chit-chat) were baffled by the organizers’ choice to re-exhibit the roses…. And why not in Shanghai?

None of our editorial members or insiders caught the news about whether the transition was a pre-arrangement or a second-order arrangement, but it does suggest to be a fund-raising and tourism art exhibition.

 

Cuppetelli and Mendoza (link to bio) It is absurd how little we know about Cuppetelli and Mendoza who have been active in building and creating light installations since 2010. On a brief note, they work on kinetics and project light as digital art on walls.

 

Chris Fraser (link to bio). An artist based in the west coast of the US, and began exhibiting his light installation works in 2010/2011. Fraser’s light installations each carries his trademark or better referred as his signature – the tiny light gap. A rather intelligent illusion created using a fluorescent tube and the given space.  A featured interview of Fraser is available on this webpage.

 

 

Tadao Ando is a famous contemporary architect. He has built many impressive architecture buildings including this chapel located in Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan. He starred in a documentary, ‘Church of the Light’ which narrates the construction and his inspiration to build the concrete-appearance church in Ibaraki. And because Ando is a very serious man, in the documentary he mentioned that Facebook takes up too much time, and social media is only useful for people who have too much time. Most of our editorial members find it difficult to disagree with Prof. Ando. If you are creating a genuine novel product or project, social media is indeed a waste of time, why bother with the small talks? Social media is a place for investments if you are looking for new information or to hear a different voice or to find new partner(s).

 

Davis  Ayer; Lights and Typography (link to bio)
If I may say, this is totally messed up. What you see is not what you get. Texas-based artist Davis Ayers has projected a succinct message in his huge library of Nota Bene..  the blurry logic.

-End-

Credit written text to Yuhui Lin (NYLin), The Founder.

Go-chess: A game between two players; and each uses different coloured seeds to be placed on a square wooden box board. The board is marked with square-boxes and the players take turns to place one seed at a time. The player with its seeds surrounded or embraced by the opponent’s seeds and with no territory for establishment loses the game.( wiki Go game )

In very, very rare occasions, the game teaches one of the gamers that- Sometimes you have to lose a small portion of your army to win the war;  it is more important to winning the war than to win the battle. To win the battle, but to lose the war…. is simply dumb.